1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a mobile agent technique, and in particular, to a mechanism for monitoring the interaction between mobile agents in a virtual mall using mobile agents.
2. Description of Related Art
A mobile agent includes program code for executing an operation, and data, such as the results of processing, for representing the condition of the mobile agent. In an agent execution environment provided for a computer connected to a computer network, a mobile agent interacts with another mobile agent by exchanging messages and by performing necessary processing. Further, the mobile agent can move to an execution environment in another computer by itself as needed.
Interaction between mobile agents is effected by the exchange of a message object or by a method call. The conventional interaction between the agents is not disclosed to a third agent, and a mechanism for monitoring the interaction between the other agents by a third agent has not been proposed.
While problems relative to security and privacy may arise from the disclosure of the message contents, some benefits may accrue from opening the interactive transaction process to other agents. Consider, for example, a virtual mall where a seller (shop agent) and a buyer (customer agent) exchange product information. The shop agent has product data, and returns a listing of available products upon the reception of a search request from the customer agent. Conventionally, the messages exchanged during such an interactive process are not disclosed, but if the searching contents for a product to be purchased is disclosed, various agents for interrupting to a simple product search can be implemented. For example, an advertising agent, which is an agent for providing associated information, may introduce to the customer agent products associated with a product searched for. Also, an agent that can provide similar products may transmit a message representing that products are available that are similar to a product searched for, or a statistics agent may monitor the statistics for a product search at a virtual mall and transmit them to a customer agent. The customer agent can then employ such information to acquire more product information and purchase the best product available.
Although a mobile agent is described in detail in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,603,031, issued Feb. 11, 1997, entitled "System and Method For Distributed Computation Based Upon the Movement, Execution, and Interaction of Processes in a Network", by White et al. (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No.: Hei 7182174), a process for the disclosure of the contents of messages is not described. A mobile agent according to the above patent and a mobile agent according to the present invention differ in various ways.